Photographing Manchester during three decades of change

'It's the people's stories I have been drawn by, not the buildings themselves'

Good evening members — today’s post is about someone who has watched the dramatic changes in Manchester and Salford up close.

Len Grant began his career photographing recently-installed conservatories for a Wirral double glazing company and snapping shipping containers in Reddish. He was a largely self-taught photographer who wanted a new career after spending his twenties working unhappily in advertising and sales.

He got one all right. Grant quickly became the photographer chosen to document the big building and regeneration projects that would transform the city over the next few decades. He was hired time and again by the council and property developers to stand on the scaffolding and point his camera at a very rapidly changing world.

“On balance I am very excited about what has happened in Manchester,” Grant told The Mill recently. In his new book documenting three decades of work in the city, he describes hiding his camera when he walked around Ancoats 20 years ago. “Now you bump…